Last month, we discussed Joaquin Phoenix’s return to acting with his prospective involvement in director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson’s (and somehow, until looking at the above photo, I never noticed how good looking he is) untitled religious drama that looked to present a disciple’s horrific experiences with a faith-based movement that very closely resembled Scientology. At that point, Philip Seymour Hoffman was tapped to play “The Master” while Phoenix was circling the role of the disciple who begins to question the cult-like ways of his faith. Now, Deadline has confirmed that both Phoenix and Hoffman are “locked” into their roles, and the Weinsteins have acquired Anderson’s project. Here are even more details:

The Weinstein Company has won a quiet but fevered bidding battle for worldwide distribution rights to the untitled next film by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film begins production June 13, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix so far set to star. Megan Ellison is financing. It is Anderson’s first trip behind the camera since There Will Be Blood.

Hoffman and Phoenix are locked. As for the actresses, I’m told that Anderson is eyeing such women as Madisen Beaty (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) for a role, with Amy Adams, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo‘s Lena Endre and Laura Dern also mentioned as actresses Anderson is interested in. The auction was held at CAA headquarters late last week, with Fox Searchlight also squarely in the mix.

This is the project that Anderson has worked on for a long time, once under the title The Master. He has greatly overhauled the script and now, Hoffman stars as a man who returns after witnessing the horrors of WWII and tries to rediscover who he is in post-war America. He creates a belief system, something that catches on with other lost souls. The film is fully financed by Ellison’s Annapurna banner.

[From Deadline]

Considering what an amazing job that Anderson did with helming There Will Be Blood (that movie also took an interesting and very cynical view of religion and resulted in a Best Actor Academy Award for Daniel Day Lewis), this could do wonders for getting Joaquin Phoenix’s career back out of the gutter. As for the Scientology aspects of the faith-based movement at the center of the film, a few notes on Anderson’s ongoing script development indicate that the year 1952 shall be of the utmost importance, which, interestingly enough, was the year that Dianetics really took off and L. Ron Hubbard founded the Hubbard College to train auditors. While the movie obviously won’t mention Scientology by name, I think it’s pretty clear that Anderson was motivated to write this script to expose what happens behind the scenes when a movement transforms into a religion. And the resulting fallout should be rather delicious.

Photos courtesy of WENN and AllMoviePhoto

Hey, remember that actor-turned-Unibomber-twin, Joaquin Phoenix? Well, he’s looking to officially end that “retirement” phase from a few years ago and has already sought to make amends by apologizing to David Letterman, but he has yet to secure any real acting work after he and Casey Affleck gave the finger to the world with I’m Still Here. Now, Phoenix is said to be circling a project that’s unofficially called The Master (but is still officially untitled) and will be directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, who previously helmed an amazingly horrific tale of greed in There Will Be Blood. If Phoenix signs on, he’ll endear himself to the world with an anti-Scientology message:

Joaquin Phoenix, who hasn’t acted since his “retirement” that precipitated I’m Still Here, is in early talks to join Philip Seymour Hoffman in Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled religious drama.

Anderson is directing from his own original script, which chronicles a disaffected disciple’s relationship with the founder of a new faith that closely mirrors Scientology.

Hoffman will play Lancaster Dodd, a charismatic intellectual known as The Master, while Phoenix would play Freddie Sutton, an alcholic drifter who becomes his right-hand man only to begin questioning his manipulative mentor.

[From Variety]

This would be a very interesting development in Phoenix’s career and might possibly put him on the path of redemption after that notorious Casey Affleck mockumentary. It must also be noted that Joaquin grew up as a member of the Children of God “movement,” which undoubtedly gave him plenty of life experience from which to draw concerning the mindset of cult members. Slashfilm notes that Joaquin’s prospective role was originally to be played by Jeremy Renner, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and also (and this is key) because he joined Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Naturally, Renner couldn’t join a Tom Cruise film while still intending to act within an anti-Scientology film, right? This is a slightly disappointing realization about Renner, who is truly a talented actor and an all-around likeable guy, so if the CO$ truly gets their claws into him … the gloves come off.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Joaquin Phoenix went on David Letterman last night for the first time since his disheveled mumbling appearance in February, 2009. A clean-shaved and initially arrogant-looking Phoenix explained that he cooked up the scheme with Casey Affleck to stage a public breakdown and film it as “we wanted to do a film that explored celebrity and explored the relationship between the media and the consumers and the celebrities themselves.” Letterman wanted to make it clear that he had no idea that it was a stunt when Joaquin was on the last time. Joaquin offered a half-assed apology while maintaining that Letterman should have known something was up. “You’ve interviewed many many people and I assume that you would kind of know the difference between a character and a real person, but I apologize. I hope I didn’t offend you in any way.”

Dave then ribbed Joaquin about the fact that they used a full five minutes from his disastrous interview with him in the film without licensing it at all. He said his lawyers contacted the lawyers for the film and were told that it was “fair use” as it was a documentary. Now that it’s known that the film isn’t a documentary, “you owe me a million dollars,” Dave quipped. He seemed genuinely annoyed that Joaquin duped him and got so much publicity and footage out of it. Joaquin said “We’ll work it out, but can we talk about it privately?”

“We’ll go to one of your screenings,” Dave deadpanned.

I got the feeling that Joaquin was eating crow in an attempt to sell the film, but that his heart just wasn’t in it. Casey admitted a few days ago that the movie was a hoax and that he went broke personally financing it. It’s been a royal flop and has only taken in $259,000 since it was released two weeks ago, and now these two must be desperate. Maybe Dave let Joaquin on again so the film could earn enough money to pay him the licensing fees he thinks he’s owed. Fat chance with that.

Casey Affleck was on Leno earlier this week and he admitted that “neither Joaquin or I talked to Dave” ahead of that interview in February. He said “I told [Paul] Schaffer, but he’s not going to tell anybody.” He also said that no one called to ask how Joaquin was doing back when many people assumed his “Bye Good” act was legitimate. “You know, I never got calls. It’s weird… afterward, the movie comes out, the critics like to say ‘this is crazy, this is disturbing, this is sick.’ But while it’s happening, people were happy just to mock him and make fun of him.” It’s not like Casey was bitching about it, though, as Leno asked him specifically if anyone was concerned back when we thought Joaquin was crazy.

Casey said that he truly thought that everyone who watched the movie would realize that it was a put on by the end. It looks like no one is seeing it, hence the confusion.

Here’s Casey’s interview with Leno. In the second video below there’s a clip from the film at the point when there’s 1:00 left. Diddy seems so nice to me.

Joaquin on 2/11/09 and 3/8/10. Credit: Fame Pictures

Last week, maybe, Casey Affleck came out and admitted that yes, I’m Still Here was a big fat “hoax”. It surprised no one. Sure, I guess I had a vague interest in knowing whether Joaquin Phoenix actually snorted coke, f-cked hookers and got crapped on for real, or whether it was all the magic of Hollywood. But my interest was more of a ten second “I wonder…” thought rather than a “That looks and sounds like an epic exploration of sanity and hipster inside jokes, I must see it!” Anyway, it’s all fake, down to the vintagey shots that are supposed to be of Joaquin as a kid – Casey Affleck (the director) just hired actors to play those parts. Which would have made a good movie actually – who do you cast as a young River Phoenix? Anyway, Casey just gave an interview to the Telegraph and he’s trying to play on our heartstrings. You see, this “art” film was financed by Casey, and he almost went broke doing it, so now we have to see it!

Casey Affleck has admitted that I’m Still Here, his hoax documentary about Joaquin Phoenix, was a “planned, staged and scripted work of fiction” that nearly bankrupted him.

The film charting Phoenix’s supposed mental breakdown – complete with drugs, prostitutes, a terrible beard and a bizarre appearance on the David Letterman Show – was revealed last week as a fake. Affleck said the project was an essay on celebrity culture.

“It was pretty much all within the realm of possibility: people use prostitutes, people use drugs, especially in Hollywood. We didn’t take it so far that it wasn’t believable,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “For me, the film was Dante’s Inferno. Here was a guy midway through his life – Joaquin’s 35 years old – and he just goes down farther and farther into this more and more hideous place until he gets as low as he can possibly go. But then he breaks through to the other side and has some sort of redemptive experience – that was the movie, that was my guiding light. Also, this was a movie about a man having a movie made about him.”

Affleck spent two years making the film. “Having something at stake is a great motivator and once this thing became public for me that was very helpful because there was no question: I had to see it through, no matter how long it took. I went broke. I hadn’t worked for more than a year, and I was pouring money into the movie. I had to stop for a month to do The Killer Inside Me. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the film – I was out of money. There was a lot at stake financially and, if we had left [the hoax] there, it would have been very damaging to Joaquin’s career.”

Unfortunately for Affleck, US audiences have not flocked to see the film. I’m Still Here took just $96,658 in its opening weekend. Meanwhile The Town, directed by his brother Ben and released in the same week, has topped the box office.

Asked why he had come clean about the hoax now, Affleck said: “Because I haven’t been able to talk about it for two years, and I wanted people to know this was a planned, staged and scripted work of fiction. I didn’t want to have anyone get the wrong idea about Joaquin or anybody else in the film. I wanted people to see the movie for what it really is. My intention was never to fool anybody. There’s a big difference between fooling someone and asking them to think.”

[From The Telegraph]

Douche. If you blow your savings on a film based on an inside “joke” that isn’t actually funny, then I do pity you and your stupidity, but I still won’t see your goddamn movie. It just seems like Casey and Joaquin made a film about how it sucks so hard to be movie stars and have everyone want to work with you and give you roles in movies and want you to promote your films and fulfill your contract. Woe is the rich, successful, entitled white man! He has the angst. Pity him. What makes it worse is that I actually believe that Joaquin is actually a f-cked up person with a lot of issues, and if he actually participated in a film where he spoke honestly and dealt directly with his drug/alcohol problems (I’m assuming), or the psychological ramifications of his brother’s death – right before his eyes – well, I would totally watch that. It’s a pity Casey didn’t make THAT movie.

Header: Casey on Sept. 6, 2010. Credit: WENN.

You know what I think? I think Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix are truly disappointed by the collective “meh” their “documentary” I’m Still Here has generated. Casey was in Venice to promote the film (which he directed), and was noticeably glum (c-nt) about doing press, insisting that “there is no hoax” and that everything we see Joaquin doing in the film is real. So just what happens in the “documentary” you ask? Oh, lots of goodies. Joaquin’s disgruntled employee sh-ts in Joaquin’s mouth. Joaquin does some blow and whines, and hires some hookers. More whining. Probably the whole thing could be filed under “Masturbatory Aids, For Joaquin Only.”

Joaquin Phoenix shocked Hollywood in 2008 when he announced his retirement from acting to pursue a career as a hip-hop artist. But the ensuing Casey Affleck-directed documentary, “I’m Still Here,” makes Phoenix look as serious about his rap career as “Borat” was about benefiting the glorious nation of Kazakhstan.

However, the Academy Award nominee does highlight some interesting truths about life as an oh-so-serious-actor beneath his adopted bushy beard.

“I don’t want to play a character anymore… some dumb funny puppet,” Phoenix explains in the film, before slamming his (former) actors as falsely believing they are being “all creative, when acting isn’t creativity at all.”

But in his “transition” into a new music career, the seemingly lonely, pot-bellied 35-year-old epitomizes – or does he satirize? – the lifestyle typically associated with rock stars and movie stars.

Phoenix snorts cocaine, (or is powdered sugar?) has a wild night with hired hookers, (or are they hired extras?) and treats his assistant poorly. Said sober-living employee, who is accused in the film of selling insider information to the tabloids, eventually seeks revenge by defecating in Phoenix’s mouth as he sleeps. Charming.

The former actor’s antics and Affleck’s “direction” can be clever, yet more often come across as scripted, not spontaneous. Nonetheless, Affleck is standing firm that the film is legitimate. “I can tell you that there is no hoax. That never even entered into my consciousness until other people began to talk about the movie,” Affleck told reporters at the Venice Film Festival this week, where “I’m Still Here” premiered.

“I’m Still Here” is also laced with references to Phoenix’s childhood, his fear of jumping off a cliff into a river in the family’s Panama vacation home, and footage of the Phoenix kids performing in a Westwood talent quest. Although there is no direct reference to brother River Phoenix’s fatal drug overdose outside the Viper Room in 1993, one can’t help but be disturbed by Joaquin’s amped up drug use as reference to the sinister side of stardom, a life he chose to lead but now looks to be trying to escape.

And if you thought Phoenix was immune to all the jokes about his “homeless” guise following his “retirement,” think again. In the film, the ex-actor constantly Googles himself, wincing at the blogs and bad press, and looks distraught when Ben Stiller dresses up as him and mocks his appearance at the Oscars.

Phoenix also watches reruns of his now infamous 2009 interview on “The Late Show” with David Letterman in which he can barely string together two sentences. But again, was Phoenix putting on an act with Dave? Because a source at the taping of the Letterman show told FOX411.com that while Phoenix appeared anxious and annoyed during the interview, the vibe was quite different during the commercial breaks, as he and host were chatting and laughing.

After 108 minutes of beyond plausible insanity, complete with following Diddy around the country in desperation for him to hear his music, and making snow angels in Central Park, the question remains: is this really the last time we’ll see Phoenix on the big screen? While Phoenix’s hip-hop music career is most likely dead in the water (we pray), was the film just a two-year social experiment, or has Phoenix really quit acting for good?

The “Walk the Line” star has no future projects listed anywhere, so if he is going to work again, he’s very good at keeping it a secret.

[From Fox News]

Yeah. So basically, this was all an “act” – but an act specifically designed to exhibit how “clever” they are and as an excuse to do drugs and f-ck hookers and bitch and moan and complain about how hard it is being an A-List actor. It’s self-indulgent. Now, maybe this is my old crush on Joaquin talking, but wouldn’t you watch a real documentary about his life? Like, I would love to really hear him speak about drugs and River and friendship and Hollywood enablers. But instead, we get this piece of garbage. Whatever.

By the way, did you know that Joaquin has a new girlfriend? Her name is Aria Paradiso and she’s a model. You know, because Joaquin is so clever, he couldn’t rethink the oh-so-atypical “model girlfriend.” Here she is:

Casey Affleck did promotional duties for his new documentary on Joaquin Pheonix’s lost year, I’m Still Here, with an appearance in Venice for the premiere last night. The film reportedly has some very graphic scenes, and distribution has not been without controversy. Casey has been sued by sexual harassment by two different female collaborators, both of whom allege that he accosted them for sex, became hostile when he refused, and ultimately owed them money when they left the project. Joaquin wasn’t there for the premiere, but Casey claimed he was in Venice at least. Casey gave reporters his take on the film and insisted that it’s not a put on, although he claims to leave that up for viewers to decide:

On Monday in Venice, where his film was screened out of competition at the Film Festival, Affleck said he’s leaving the answer up to the audience.

“Elliptically, I would say … I sincerely don’t want to influence people’s interpretation,” Affleck told reporters. “I can tell you there is no hoax. It makes me think of ‘Candid Camera’ or something.”

The film is full of dark, sometimes graphic scenes about the Academy Award-nominated Phoenix, whose decision to go for a music career and concurrent decline was fodder for late-night comics.

In one scene, Phoenix banters about the irony of his life being depicted in film, when he is trying to get away from the industry. The film follows Phoenix to his last acting and press events, where he grumbles that he “hates” acting.

“I think everyone at some point in their life hates their jobs and the people they are around,” he says in opening scenes to explain why he wants to change his life despite his talent and enormous success, which includes an Oscar nomination for playing Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line.”

What follows are scenes depicting his negative downturn. There’s drug use, graphic language, the search for online sex, a meeting with a prostitute and other hard core scenes, such as of Phoenix attacking a spectator at his own concert.

Throughout the film, Phoenix gains weight and lets his hair and beard grow long and unkempt.

“I know that he is someone that doesn’t shy away from letting me see all the different aspects of his personality and if he was willing to do it and I was willing to do it I owed it to him to make it as unflinching look at him as I possibly could,” said Affleck, who recently starred in the film “The Killer Inside Me…”

Hoax or no hoax, Phoenix gives an all-out performance, which begs the question he asked himself at the beginning of the documentary: Is the actor playing a role or is a role playing the actor?

While the actor’s narcissism is central to the project, the film stands as a portrait of an artist trying to break out of the jail of the same celebrity culture upon which he is dependent.

“When I watched the movie, I am not repulsed by him and I feel for him and I understand him better than I did at beginning of the movie. I have a lot of love for him,” Affleck said.

[AP via Huffington Post]

I really bought Joaquin’s “act” or non-act on Letterman, but now that he’s “recovered” and is back to his old smug ass attractive self I’m thinking this whole thing was a dumb media experiment that these two tried to cash in on. I’m interested to read what the critics say about this film once it’s out. It comes out in limited release in the US this weekend. I won’t be seeing it given the disturbing advance details, but I love reading reviews, especially negative ones, and these could be scathing.

Here’s Casey in Venice yesterday. Doesn’t he look thrilled to be there? Credit: WENN.com

You knew it was coming. Well, I knew it was coming. As soon as I saw that some poor studio was actually going to take the time, money and effort to promote Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck’s idiotic “performance art” documentary I’m Still Here, I knew that we would be seeing trailers and clips and a real push to get people to see this turd. At the end of Casey and Joaquin’s long journey, I’ve come to conclusion that Joaquin was absolutely faking the whole thing. And that makes me think he’s an a–hole. See if you can get through this trailer without having your eyes roll out of their sockets:

New Agey speech/voice-over about how we are all unique droplets of water? Check. Mangy, tick-infested beard? Check. Brutal life-altering realizations in the back of a limo? Check. The necessary scary music, emphasizing how “alone” one celebrity is when he’s having his photo taken? Check. Pregnant-man gut? Check. Vague night-vision homo-eroticism? Check. Soul-crushing narcissism? Check. Ugh. This is how one of the best young actors in Hollywood pisses away his talent and the goodwill of many, many people.

Poster courtesy of Daemon’s Movies.

Late last week, Lainey ran an opinion piece in which she said that she thought that Joaquin Phoenix’s big meltdown last year was some kind of Sacha Baron-Cohen type experiment. The news recently came out that Casey Affleck is shopping around a documentary of Phoenix’s brief “retirement” from film and descent into an ill-advised rap career. That doesn’t prove that it was all a scam, just that Phoenix’s behavior is suspect in light of the film. Another large blog linked to Lainey’s story with the title “Joaquin admits it was all a hoax.” The thing is, that was just Lainey’s opinion and she was clear about that, and neither Joaquin nor his brother-in-law Casey (who is married to Joaquin’s sister, Summer) have admitted to anything. I like how Lainey explained her position on the matter and she has some very good points. However I think the verdict is still out on Phoenix’s intent and it’s unknown whether he was pulling some massive stunt, whether he really had some kind of breakdown he (seemingly) recovered from, or if the truth is somewhere in between.

According to people who have watched the film, it’s hard to tell if it was all a joke. There are some shocking moments that don’t look staged, but no one seems to know. As many of you have pointed out, Joaquin is an actor and he could have easily been pulling the mangy beard over our eyes for months. Warning on this story, there are some disturbing details that I’ll let you read for yourself if you’re interested. One I don’t mind repeating is the claim that there’s “more male frontal nudity than you’d find in some gay porn films“:

It’s far from the Joaquin Phoenix you’re used to seeing onscreen: snorting cocaine, ordering call girls, having oral sex with a publicist, treating his assistants abusively and rapping badly. And not, apparently, playing a role — or was he?

Even after seeing the documentary “I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix” in a private screening earlier this week, film buyers still aren’t sure of its genuineness. Was the “Walk the Line” and “Gladiator” star, who said more than a year ago that he was quitting acting to become a musician, playing a sophisticated prank, or did he really ditch his Oscar-nominated career to become a disheveled rapper?

Agents at William Morris Endeavor, the sellers of the Casey Affleck-directed film, have started showing the movie to potential distributors, and while some were apparently interested in bidding for “I’m Still Here’s” distribution rights, the shoppers left the screening perhaps even more mystified by Phoenix’s behavior than when they walked in.
Several buyers said the film overflowed with Hollywood debauchery, including more male frontal nudity than you’d find in some gay porn films and a stomach-turning sequence in which someone feuding with Phoenix defecates on the actor while he’s asleep.

The documentary — or is it a mockumentary? — also includes Phoenix’s infamous appearance on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” in which the bearded and bloated actor barely spoke, leaving Letterman bewildered if not infuriated and people wondering about Phoenix’s mental health.

The buyers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Phoenix comes off unsympathetically and shows very little talent for music in the movie, directed by his brother-in-law (Affleck is married to Summer Phoenix). Sales agent WME declined to comment.

In some scenes in the film, the 35-year-old Phoenix is trying to get Sean “Diddy” Combs to produce Phoenix’s rap album, but the hip-hop impresario is not terribly interested. Another sequence shows Ben Stiller approaching Phoenix about starring in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg,” but Phoenix is barely interested.

Two buyers who saw the movie were unsure if Phoenix had turned out an elaborate piece of performance art, where the joke was really on the audience. While they were debating the film’s commercial prospects, the buyers did agree on one thing: They’d never seen anything like it.

[From The LA Times]

So if someone poops on Joaquin while he’s sleeping, why didn’t Casey stop them instead of filming it? It’s just all suspect, but I suppose I won’t know for sure until the film comes out – if even then. Will this be a straight-to-DVD or an NC 17 film in limited release? Are distributors going to demand major edits before it’s released? I’m curious, and I’ll definitely watch it. I may cover my eyes at parts, though.

I know a lot of people believed that Joaquin Phoenix was putting us on when he embarked on that strange rap career, complete with crazy hair, a overgrown beard, incoherent mumbling, and no skill at rapping whatsoever. I was pretty convinced that it was real though. It all started in November, 2008, when an unkempt Joaquin was doing the press tour for Two Lovers and announced his retirement from acting. He even showed up on the red carpet with the words “Bye” and “Good” written on his hands in the wrong order. Around January of last year it came out that Joaquin’s friend, Casey Affleck, was going to make a documentary of Joaquin’s music career and that he was supposedly serious about his rapping.

Then in February of 2009, Phoenix had an interview on Letterman that went down in history as one of the worst ever. He just sat there and barely said anything, at one point sticking his chewing gum under Letterman’s desk. It was incredibly convincing and I thought that Phoenix was either on drugs, suffering from mental illness, or a little of both. People pointed out that he’s an actor, though, and that this whole thing could be performance art. If it was all a hoax, the guy had many people, including former costar Gwyneth Paltrow, and his last director, convinced.

For a while Phoenix disappeared from public and I even got concerned about him and wondered if he was ok . In August there was a sighting of a still-wacky Phoenix at a clothing store in LA, but that was the only news we heard about him in months.

Then, in January of this year, Phoenix made a clean cut and completely sober-looking appearance in a charity video. He seemed back to his old self again and it was kind of amazing after all we’d seen of him over the past year. So was it all an Andy Kaufman-esque elaborate scheme? Was Phoenix genuinely mentally ill and/or on drugs and did he finally get some medical intervention or detox? All these questions might be answered with the upcoming release of Casey’s documentary, or they might not. Casey is shopping the film around now and there’s real interest in it. Sellers are working to keep the story as secret as possible:

Casey Affleck has completed that much-talked about and long-awaited mockumentary he directed about his brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix’s eccentric metamorphosis from actor to hip-hop musician (or so we’ve been led to believe). I’m told that the film made its debut in a private lunchtime screening at WME headquarters last week for buyers — including Harvey Weinstein — who were sworn to secrecy. WME is selling the film, and it may only take a couple of days to reach a deal. I hear the agency and the distributors intend to keep the mock’s content under wraps for as long as they can for maximum shock value. (So it won’t be part WME Global’s sales push at the Cannes Film Festival.) Presumably, the film answers Hollywood’s bewilderment about whether Joachin was serious about quitting acting — or whether he was just, well, acting. His long months of bizarre behavior culminated in his semi-mute interview with David Letterman that was as surreal as anything Andy Kaufman ever did. And, his musical debut at the Las Vegas night club LAVO where he claimed to be a homeless rapper, jumped around the stage, and fell off.

[From Deadline]

Whatever happened to Joaquin, I’m just glad he’s ok now and that this all has a happy ending. I’m also incredibly interested in seeing this documentary. It could be fascinating. Even with the news of this film, I don’t think that it was all an act and believe that Joaquin had some serious issues at the time. Casey just seemed too flustered to me in the brief red carpet interview where he confirmed Joaquin’s retirement. Maybe these guys planned it all out though and were able to pull a huge hoax on the media. Or maybe they tried to play it off as a hoax and got sucked into the game. I hope we find out.

I noticed that there were photos of Joaquin Phoenix and Lindsay Lohan exiting Voyeur in LA last night, likely within minutes of each other. It got me to thinking… hookup? What kind of sense would Lindsay and Joaquin make together? She’s a crackhead… and Joaquin – well, who knows? He’s shaved and he doesn’t seem as crazy anymore, but you know there’s something in there, lurking. Anyway, it turns out they were partying together, according to Pop Sugar, who claimed Lindsay “was soon off to finish her evening at Voyeur with Ryan Phillippe and Joaquin Phoenix.” Conceivably, Lohan could be bangin’ Ryan Phillippe just as easily, I guess. But Joaquin is the one I’m worried about.

By the way, Lindsay is back to some kind of brownish-red hair color. It makes her look slightly healthier, but she needs to stop with the lip injections. She’s giving Nicole Kidman a run for her money. Joaquin looks… sober. Thank God. He’s back on good terms with his razor again too, which is so, so nice.

Anway, as I was looking to see if anyone else was running with the rumor that Joaquin and Lindsay could potentially be hooking up, I found the old rumors of their alleged hookup. Apparently (and I truly have no memory of this), Lindsay and Joaquin were loosely associated together as potential hookups back in late 2006 and early 2007. In fact, friends claimed that Lindsay claimed that she and Joaquin had done the sex. Ugh. Doesn’t that make you feel differently about Joaquin? Like, now, instantly, he’s a skeeze.

Lindsay and Joaquin leaving Voyeur separately late 1/30- early 2/1. Credit: David Tonnessen, PacificCoastNews.